Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Monday

Fact N°
2091

The archerfish shoots water at its land-based prey.

A small, tropical fish that lives in both freshwater and saltwater, the archerfish searches for insects sitting on low-hanging branches over the water or spiders in webs, then compresses its gills to fire a jet of water at its target. The fish can shoot at distances up to five feet, and is remarkably accurate, even managing to account for the distortion caused by the surface of the water.

Tuesday

Fact N°
2092

In 1939, Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel that did not contain the letter "e."

In an extended attempt at a lipogram -- a restrictive word exercise -- Wright wrote a 50,000-word novel, Gadsby, while avoiding the use of the most common letter in the English language. This is no easy feat -- "the," "be," "he," and "she" are all rendered unusable, for instance -- and would probably have won Wright a little more fame than it did, had he not died shortly after the book's publication. Gadsby does contain its share of curious turns of phrase; at one point, while describing a county fair, Wright is forced to refer to turkeys as "our National Thanksgiving Bird."

Wednesday

Fact N°
2093

The term "wild goose chase" is a Shakespearean reference to horses.

Used by Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, the term that now refers to the hopeless pursuit of a pointless goal apparently had a similar meaning in Shakespeare's day, but with a separate figurative connotation. Referring either to a game played by riders or to the behavior of galloping horses themselves, the phrase evoked horses chasing after a single lead horse, thereby winding up in a geese-like "V" formation. (On the other hand, a "wild-goose chase," hyphenated, is literally just a chase for wild geese.)

Thursday

Fact N°
2094

The largest financial empire of the early 20th century was built on the production of matches.

In his day, Ivar Kreuger may well have been the richest man in the world. The Swedish businessman and engineer eventually founded or acquired hundreds of companies, but the core of his business was his family's match factories. Kreuger's match business merged with several others, and when the Swedes invented safety matches, Kreuger's influence expanded until his companies (which included Diamond Match, Ohio Match and the International Match Corporation) were responsible for the bulk of the world's match production. Kreuger's empire was financially unsound, however, having been built on speculation and dummy corporations, and ended in utter financial collapse and Kreuger's suicide (although some speculation suggests that he may have been murdered).

Friday

Fact N°
2095

A company in New Zealand is producing functional jet packs.

Christchurch's Martin Aircraft Company has begun developing several varieties of jet pack, including one for military use and another for recreational consumer use (the latter comes with an expectably high $100,000 sticker price). The company has produced working models of the device, which it classifies as an ultralight aircraft; Martin's website features several videos of the jet pack in use. Unlike earlier attempts to build similar personal flight devices, this jet pack has solved the thrust-to-weight problem, and can run for half an hour on five gallons of gas.

Saturday

Fact N°
2096

Your mind is wandering nearly half the time.

Scientists conducting an experiment through the use of an iPhone app have determined that people are frequently (46.9% of the time) devoting their attentions to something other than the present moment -- either daydreaming, remembering or considering the future. The app used by researchers asked respondents what they were doing and whether or not they were concentrating on that task; no single activity, other than sex, kept the respondents' minds from wandering at least 30% of the time.

Sunday

Fact N°
2097

Unlike women, men with insomnia are four times more likely to die early.

Insomnia coinciding with other health risks isn't especially surprising, since it's often the symptom of some other ailment. But a Penn State study found that insomnia "is associated with significant mortality in men," while not coming to the same conclusion for women subjects. With other risk factors removed from the equation, men with severe insomnia were 4.3 times more likely to die over the 14-year course of the study than non-sufferers, while women who suffered from chronic insomnia saw no increase in mortality rate.